A Sri Lankan shaman who touted a treatment for Covid died after contracting the illness.

A well-liked shaman in Sri Lanka who claimed to have the ability to treatment coronavirus sufferers with a holy water died final week after being contaminated with the virus, a well being ministry official stated this weekend.

The shaman, often known as Eliyantha Lindsay White, was not vaccinated. He died on Wednesday after being taken to a hospital, the official stated.

Mr. White was an influential and divisive determine in Sri Lanka, the place about 53 p.c of individuals have been absolutely vaccinated towards the coronavirus, in accordance with the Our World in Data challenge on the College of Oxford. The shaman, who was 48, practiced different drugs involving questionable potions whose elements have been by no means publicly disclosed.

Some high-ranking officers within the Sri Lankan authorities and several other skilled athletes have stated publicly that they believed in Mr. White’s therapeutic powers. However he was denounced by medical professionals.

“There isn’t a credible proof to indicate if there was a optimistic consequence from his work,” stated Dr. Samantha Ananda, a spokeswoman for the Authorities Medical Officers’ Affiliation, a serious commerce union for docs in Sri Lanka. “We don’t suggest something that’s not confirmed in a scientific methodology.”

Dr. Ananda stated that the politicians who had publicly endorsed Mr. White might need carried out so to ingratiate themselves along with his legion of followers.

Contact info for Mr. White’s household was not accessible, and a phone message left with an individual near the household was not returned.

In November, three ministers in Sri Lanka’s authorities, together with a former well being minister, have been shown on video throwing pots containing Mr. White’s holy water into a number of rivers that function the primary sources of ingesting water within the nation. Mr. White had stated that ingesting the concoction would treatment Covid-19.

Pavithra Wanniarachchi, the previous well being minister, subsequently contracted the virus and spent two weeks in intensive care, in accordance with the BBC. Not one of the three ministers within the video responded to cellphone calls in search of remark.